3/16/2024 0 Comments Divine the drag queen![]() They were young, rebellious, creative, and they embraced all the flavors of the city-the people, the stories, the pot, LSD, Quaaludes, and poppers. The Dreamlanders were Baltimore’s bane (especially when it came to the censor board) and flair. At that time, the drag scene was performative and serious pageantry, which was a bit too limiting and humorless for Divine. He attended beauty school with Divine and introduced Divine to the concept of “drag.” He was also known to style and design Divine’s makeup and wigs for parties. Lochary remains something of a public mystery, which means he is not discussed nearly as often as some of the other members. David Lochary was pertinent as well, as an uncredited contributor in the hair and makeup department and as an actor, often playing a perverse and excessive villain in Waters’ films. Glenn Milstead became a crucial member of that core team, and one of Waters’ most profound muses. A few books could be written on the collective Dreamlanders and their outside ventures with a standalone novel on the extraterrestrial yet comforting character that was Edith Massey. The Dreamlanders included Bob Skidmore, Mark Isherwood, and Mary Vivian Pearce, all friends of Waters, as well as Mink Stole, Paul Swift, Susan Lowe, Cookie Mueller, George Figgs, David Lochary, who Waters met through Divine, Edith “Edie” Massey, and more (as more were added throughout the years). The Baltimore eccentrics and relics, actors and film apprentices collected by John Waters became known as the Dreamlander team. He was attracted to people who were interesting and fearless, and there were plenty of unique, palatable people roaming the suburbs of his hometown. Waters experimented in Baltimore with his own vision for characters and film. John Waters appreciated Warhol’s filmmaking for proving there was a market for these underground films. In those early days, underground film existed solely in New York City. And whatever boundaries were established in that underground were further crossed and radicalized by the visions of John Waters and Divine and others who dared to do more, and because they pushed further, they were allowed an unlikely jaunt in American success. They boomed and throttled in the night, excavating while mom and pop slept, and those excavations shifted our earth, causing tiny, yet noticeable fractures in the surface above. They worked underground to recode our pretend existence, to build a world where everyone could thrive and exist. Groups of misfit hackers chipped away at previously established social constructs and rebelled against the impossible corporate confines and ideologies of the 1950s. The 1960s-1970s were a grandiose time of gradual and sometimes painful transformations (as the forward motion of change often conveys). ![]() ![]() At some point their tracks crossed, the two men talked, and as good people do, they bonded over their love of movies.Īt that same time, significant social movements were happening. Waters showed up with mutual friends and a new camera and started shooting footage. The future Divine met John Waters at a surprise party Glenn was throwing. It is simply impossible to separate the two, and undoubtedly, Waters and Divine would not want us to.ĭivine, the man, the character actor, and the persona, was born Harris Glenn Milstead (in youth, he preferred the name Glenn) on Octoin Baltimore, Maryland. Those names exist in cinematic singularity. One cannot discuss John Waters without discussing Divine. Glenn used the name Divine to refer to himself and to his character actor persona, but from what I have read and observed in interviews, he preferred the pronoun “he/him,” and I have done my best to respect that. Often, I view his characters entirely in a “she/her” capacity, and you will see me use that pronoun endearingly. I use “she/her” to refer to Divine in character or as a stage presence and “he/him” to refer to Divine the person. In this essay, I have tried to remain consistent with my pronouns.
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